Architectural distinction pairs with a gorgeous mountain backdrop to create this singularly exquisite estate, offering approximately 7,200 square feet of living space on over two acres of landscaped private grounds and oak habitat.
Designed in 1928 by renowned architect Gardner Dailey, the architect of Montecito's famed Coral Casino, in a Modernist-influenced Spanish Colonial Revival style, this magnificent mountain-view estate has undergone a recently completed, meticulous restoration, resulting in a perfectly seamless integration of timeless architectural integrity with contemporary infrastructure.
Property Details
Historical Information*
"The plans" (for the property located at 1041 Mission Ridge Road) were drawn by architect Gardner Dailey of San Francisco for the artist Bruce Porter in May 1927. Porter occupied the house from 1929 to 1937 according to city directories.
Gardner Dailey (1895-1967), along with William Wurster, is credited with originating the Second Bay Region Tradition style in the 1930s and is considered one of the most influential architects in Northern California during his active years from the late 1920s until the 1960s. Dailey was born in Minnesota and moved to San Francisco as a teenager. He began his formal education at UC Berkeley, and after World War I, resumed it at Stanford University and Heald's Engineering School in San Francisco. In his early designs, which include the study property in 1928, historic styles predominated, especially Spanish Colonial Revival. Noteworthy examples of Dailey's early Spanish Colonial Revival projects are the Arnold House in Hillsborough and the Allied Arts Guild in Menlo Park, both completed in 1929.[1]
Dailey changed his design focus to Modernism in the mid-1930s. He chose to temper the austere aspects of Modernism, however, by blending it with elements drawn from his area's indigenous Arts and Crafts movement and Bay Region Tradition style. His homes were sited and built to interact seamlessly with their natural or built surroundings. This was particularly true in his Bay Area rural residences. Many of these buildings were shaped to conform to the site topography, the walls were often sided with brick or redwood and wall openings provided view opportunities and encouraged movement between the inside and outdoor courtyards or gardens. Dailey also designed numerous urban residential, commercial and institutional buildings during his long career, a few of which were overseas, but most were located in the Bay Area. These included the Brazil Pavilion at the Treasure Island Exposition of 1939, the Red Cross Building (1948) and during the 1950s and 1960s, several educational buildings for UC Berkeley, UC Davis and Stanford University. Dailey's only other known Santa Barbara projects include the Coral Casino (1937) and an addition to the Mar Monte Hotel on Cabrillo Boulevard (1937).[2]
Bruce Porter(1865-1953) was a multi-talented artist, landscape architect and writer who was a part of the Arts and Crafts movement in Northern California and helped establish the First Bay Region Tradition style. Porter was born in San Francisco, where he received his early education, and then studied overseas in London, Paris and Venice. His sketch of a church in Italy inspired the design, formally composed by A. C. Schweinfurth, of the Swedenborgian Church (1894) in San Francisco, which is considered one of the iconic buildings of the Arts and Crafts movement. Porter was also a regional landscape painter in the interpretive tradition. One of his works, Presidio Cliffs, was exhibited at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, in 1915. He painted many murals as well, including those at the Pacific Union Club and First Unitarian Church, both in San Francisco. Public monument creation was another of his artistic pursuits. He designed the Robert Louis Stevenson monument in San Francisco in 1897 and the Saratoga Memorial Arch in honor of World War I casualties in 1919. Finally, as a writer, Porter wrote poetry and art criticism for newspapers and journals and was co-publisher of the literary magazine The Lark, 1895-1897. No information was found regarding Porter's artistic activities, if any, pursued during his short stay in Santa Barbara, 1929-1937.[3]"
*Excerpted from the Historic Structures Report for 1041 Mission Ridge Road prepared and researched by Ronald L. Nye, Historian
[1] http://www.gardnerdailey.org/; Page and Turnbull, "Historic Resource Assessment: 2690 Broadway, San Francisco, California," 1999, as reproduced at http://www.gardnerdailey.org/; "Arnold House, Hillsborough," California Arts & Architecture, July 1929, 44-48.
[2]Page and Turnbull, "Historic Resource Assessment: 2690 Broadway, San Francisco, California"; Dave Weinstein, Signature Architects of the San Francisco Bay Area (Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2006), 86-97.
[3] Edan Milton Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940 (San Francisco: Hughes Publishing, 1989), 444; Who's Who in California, 1928-1929, 303; Who's Who in California, 1942-1943, 731; Edward R. Bosley, "A. C. Schweinfurth," in Robert Winter, ed., Toward a Simpler Way of Life (Los Angeles: UC Press, 1997), 11-22.